GOODWELL, Okla. – The No. 20 MACU women's basketball team survives a scare on the road inside Anchor D Arena against Oklahoma Panhandle State as the Evangels held off the Aggies 69-68 on Thursday night.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Whitney Outon – 22 Points, 9-17 FG, 3-7 3FG, 5 Reb
- Shy Christopher – 14 Points, 6-14 FG, 5 Reb, 3 Assists
- Kyleigh Leverich – 9 Points, 3-6 FG, 3-4 3FG, 2 Reb, 2 Assists
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- The Evangels got out to a quick start with a pair of layups from Whitney Outon and Shy Christopher to open the contest, but the Aggies countered with a 9-2 run of their own as a Jamiya Eaddy three-ball gaves OPSU a 9-6 lead with 6:39 to go.
- OPSU maintained the lead through the first half of the period until a Kyleigh Leverich triple at the 4:45 mark ignited an eight-unanswered Evangels streak, capped off when Sydney Wycoff muscled in a three-point play to set the score to 16-11 with 3:24 remaining.
- Mid-America Christian stretched the lead out as far as seven after Christopher converted twice from the charity stripe with just over a minute left, but OPSU's Chevelle Ralstin drained a three with 50 seconds left to close it to a 24-20 game at the end of one period of play.
- Second Quarter
- Outon once again got things going for the Evangels to open up the second quarter with a strong left-handed layup off an excellent interior feed from Alexis Borgstadt with 9:07 left.
- Both teams began to struggle to put the ball in the basket as it took almost two minutes for either side to get on the scoreboard. Ralstin ended the drought with her second three-pointer of the evening with 7:25 to play. On the following possession for the Aggies, Tateum Jones would convert the putback layup, making it a 26-25 game at the 6:43 mark.
- Following an Evangels timeout, MACU got back on-track offensively with three-pointers from Outon on back-to-back possessions to swell the lead out to 32-25 with just under five minutes to go.
- After OPSU's Chole Andrew knocked down a three on the ensuing possession, the Evangels countered with an 11-3 run of their own with six points coming from Christopher as her layup capped the run at 43-31 with 1:26 remaining.
- The Aggies closed out the half by scoring on their last two possessions, including a Bianca Camello floating jumper in the lane to beat the buzzer to make it a 43-35 game going into the halftime break.
- Third Quarter
- The Evangels once again got out to a fast start to the third period as back-to-back jumpers from Outon and Aneli Thomsen before OPSU countered with four straight of its own. MACU swung back to get its largest lead of the contest off off an Outon three and layup to set the score to 52-39 with 6:25 to go.
- MACU went cold from the field over the next four minutes as the Aggies caught fire by going 12-0 run, making it a 52-51 game with 2:24 left to play in the third quarter on Johanna Quintero's layup.
- Ashley Hopper finally broke the run by converting on a three-point play with just over two minutes left as Wycoff got the Evangels advantage back up by six with a layup at the 1:50 mark.
- However, Camello layup with 23 seconds left and a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Eaddy wrapped up a strong finish for Panhandle in the third to close it to 57-56.
- Fourth Quarter
- The lead traded hands four times to start the final quarter, but a pair of Sydney Savage foul shots started a 10-point Evangels swing as a pair of three-pointers from Leverich and Tyaija Coleman along with a Christopher layup extended the Evangels' edge to 69-60 with just over six minutes left to play.
- The Evangels went stone cold from the field over the final six minutes as MACU was kept scoreless the remainder of the game as OPSU chiseled away at the MACU advantage until Camello's layup with 37 seconds left brought it to a one-point game at 69-68.
- After forcing Christopher into committing a turnover with seven seconds left, OPSU had a shot at a buzzer-beating three-pointer after Ralstin got open on the kick-out, but her three bricked off the back iron to allow the Evangels to escape with the victory.
GAME NOTES
- Offensively, Mid-America Christian finished the game by shooting 26-of-60 (43.3 percent) from the floor and 7-for-24 (29.2 percent) from three-point range while efficiently converting on 10-of-12 (83.3 percent) from the foul line.
- The Evangels were feeling it from downtown in the second quarter as MACU knocked down 3-of-4 (75.0 percent) attempts.
- MACU limited their fouls allowing Oklahoma Panhandle State to only six trips to the line where they finished 3-for-6 (50.0 percent).
- Mid-America Christian was able to gain the edge in the points in the paint having 30 come their way compared to 22 for the Aggies.
- MACU won the turnover battle by a slim 11-to-13 margin, however, OPSU won the advantage in points off turnovers having 16 to the Evangels' 12 while also winning the rebounding battle by a 33-26 margin.
- MACU was led by Whitney Outon all night long who came up big for the Evangels when they needed a big basket. Outon cashed in 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting, along with 3-for-7 from deep.
- Shy Christopher also broke into double-digits with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting while also grabbing five boards and dishing out three assists.
- Kyleigh Leverich poured in nine points for the Evangels on a blistering 3-for-4 from behind the three-point arc to go with a pair of assists.
- Sydney Wycoff led the MACU distribution efforts with four assists.
- By getting the win, Mid-America Christian is now 8-1 all-time against Oklahoma Panhandle State and has won eight straight regular-season games against the Aggies since 2018.
- The victory allowed MACU to remain unbeaten at 8-0 this season with a 3-0 mark in Sooner Athletic Conference play while OPSU fell to 0-6 and 0-3 in SAC competition.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will now travel to Plainview, Texas on Saturday to take on Wayland Baptist in a matchup of two of the highest rated teams in the SAC. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. inside the Hutcherson Center.
